No biscuits for Sri Lankans at teatime

The fitness police - aka the team's physio and trainer - have banned biscuits from the dressing room as management looks for solutions to Sri Lanka's slide down the international rankings.

"Our physio and trainer are in charge of food at the game and they have banned biscuits in the changing room," team manager Asanka Gurusinha said.

"The other day there were biscuits in the changing room and I informed the catering staff to take it out as our trainer did not want the players to eat in the changing room."

Since Sri Lanka's group-stage exit at the Champions Trophy more emphasis has been placed on team fitness. But there has been little improvement on the field for the once-powerful nation.

In July, the side suffered a 3-2 one-day international series loss to Zimbabwe at home, and only just scraped home in the only Test. That was followed by a three-nil whitewash in a home Test series against India.

On Sunday India thumped the home side by nine wickets in an ODI. Sri Lanka posted 216 and India replied with 1-220 in just 28.5 overs.

Coach Nic Pothas said "too many cooks" were spoiling his efforts to revive the national team.

"Am I angry with the players? Absolutely not. The players work as hard as anyone can ask of them. They've been superb. Support staff have been out of this world. Brilliant," he said.

"They work endless hours with planning and helping the boys. You can't fault anyone within that changing room."

After Sunday's embarrassing loss about 50 angry fans surrounded the team bus, chanting "We want our cricket back" and "Bring back brand of cricket we played in 1996".